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PAPERS OF THE I^ERVILLE HISTORICAL 
SOCIETY. No. I 



THE PRIVATE LIFE 

OF JEAN BAPTISTE 

LEMOYNE,SIEUR 

DE BIENVILLE 

BY 

PETER J. HAMILTON, L.L.D. 

AUTHOR OF c!:bLONIAL MOBILE. ETC. 



CONTENTS 

I. A COLOHlAL LETTER 

II. REMINISCENCES 

III. THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE 

IV. IN THE PARIS OF LOUIS XV 
V. A FRENCH WILL 

VI. MONTMARTRE 



FOR THE BIENVILLE 
MONUMENT FUND 



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PREFATORY NOTE. 

An attempt has here been made to picture some of 
the scenes in the private life of the founder of Mo- 
bile, New Orleans. Natchez, and the explorer of the 
Mississippi Valley. His public career is almost the 
histor}^ of the country, and.is f.ound in Miss Grace 
King's Life of Bienville; but the movement to erect 
a statue of him has brought the wish to picture the 
man himself. The facts now given are authentic. 
His letter and will are given Jodoin and Vincent's 
Longueuil. I have transcripts of his dispatches, and 
much in the way of maps and otherwise is in my 
Colonial Mobile. If imagination has aided in the 
coloring, it is hoped that it is the historic imagina- 
tion which restores rather than creates. 

P. J. H. 



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BIENVILLE (after Margry) 



The Private Life of Jean Baptiste LeMoyne 
Sieur de Bienville 



L_A COLONIAL LETTER. 

"" One warm October day in 1713 a man sat on his 
front g-allerie at Mobile writing a letter. The honsi' 
was one-story, made of uprights' filled in with mor- 
tar, but the palings enclosed a whole city block, 
facing Eoyal street. The ground was high and af- 
forded views in all' directions to the watchful eyes 
of the writer, a pleasant looking, clean shaven man 
of thirty-three years. He had on a new coat and 
shirt, but the rest of his clothing was old, although 
still distinguishable as the uniform of a French of- 
ficer. Near b}^ was his grinning negro Bon Temps, 
jnid Indian slaves nu)ved quietly about the place, 
while from a room within came confused sounds and 
occasional laughter of officers engaged in a game of 
vignt-et-un. Every now and then the writer would 
{)ause and look out upon the boats in the river, or 
over the esplanade to his left at a large fort of pal- 
isades. As he mended his pen, his mind would go 
])ack to a childhood that could hardly remember 
father or mother, spent in Montreal or on the Cana- 
dian estate inherited by the older brother, to whom 
he was writing, 'and who had well played the part of 
lather. 

For this was Jean Baptiste LeMoyne de Bienville, 
writing the one private letter which has come down 
to us. He derived his title on the death of an older 
brother, who w^as called for Bienville, near Dieppe 

3 



in Normandy, whence their father came. From 1690 
he had been in the king's service, and in that year 
his widowed mother died when he was only ten years 
old. He took part, one way or another, in expedi- 
tions against the Indians and foraj^s towards Ncav 
England, and a few years later he was garde marin, 
or midshipman, at Brest and Rnchefort, the two 
great ports of France facing the Atlantic. 

It was a curious retrospect for the Frenchman. 
A native of Montreal, he lo.oked back over an al- 
ready checkered career. He was writing to his old- 
est brother, thinking of the dead Iberville, — the 
greatest of the family, — in touch at Mobile with the 
sailor brother, Chateaugue, and writing betimes to 
Serigny, a brother in France. For he was the twelfth 
child, and, although several of them had died in bat- 
tie, the family was still large, even if scattered. In 
1698 he had come over with Iberville on that famous 
voyage to discover the Mississippi, lost since the 
time of LaSalle; he had commanded at Biloxi after 
the death of the first commandant; had aided Iber- 
ville in explorations after the second voyage, and 
then, in 1702, had by Iberville's orders removed the 
colony to Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on Mobile River. 
II.— REMINISCENCES. 

His mind went back with mingled feelings to that 
first Fort Louis, the beginning of French settlement 
of the Mississippi Valley, the foundation of State, 
Church, Family and of Industry in Louisiana. The 
jealousy of the Seminary priests and Jesuit Fathers 
came to his mind; the disastrous year of 1704, also, 
when, instead of the expected Iberville there had 
come his ship, the Pelican, bringing from San Do- 
mingo the pestilence which was so fatal. lie re- 

4 



called the death of Toiity there, that greatest of 
French explorers, his interment under the sobbing 
pines, but with a smile he remembered also the con- 
signment of marriageable girls on the Pelican; their 
distaste for corn-bread, and the resulting Petticoat 
Insurrection. The war of the Spanish succession 
was on and the next ship from France had brought 
the news that the invincible Louis XIV had met with 
the terrible defeat of Blenheim, where the star of 
IMarlborough rose. Sailor as he was, Bienville re- 
membered keenly the British capture of Gibraltar in 
that year and the defeat of the French navy under 
Louis' son, Toulouse. He had not been much at 
court and probably never heard of the death at that 
time of the INIan of the Iron Mask, with his' mystery, 
but tears came unbidden as the thought of yellow 
fever at Mobile reminded him of its victim, Iberville, 
at Havana two years later, on the eve of retrieving 
PVench fortunes at sea. His mind passed on to the 
accusations of the commissaire LaSalle, and of the 
priest, LaVente, which had poisoned the minds' of 
the court, but had. on the other hand, attached the 
Canadians and soldiers the more firmly to him. As 
lie writes on his pen records the names of some who 
had died. — Beeancourt. Poitier, Duehery. Disaster 
at home had left him supreme in Louisiana ; for 
PVench vessels were almost driven from the ocean 
and the government could hardly communicate with 
the colony. Sometimes he had to dispense his col- 
onists among the Indians in the woods ; but at least 
his colonists. — unlike Sir "Walter Raleigh's, — came 
out of the woods again ! These dispersals were a 
matter of policy, and the violin and dancing re- 
corded by Penicaut were fruitful. If this led to the 



manages naturels ^vitli the squaAvs, so distasteful to 
the governiiieiit. it also made for a more friendly un- 
derstanding with the natives. 

As his eye fell on the new Fort Louis ovei" to Ins 
left, he was reminded of that other momentous year, 
1711. when even the friendship of the natives had 
not ])een able to obviate the famine from the over- 
floAV, and he had removed the fort here to the river 
mouth. It was a new start for the colony, the begin- 
ning of Mobile as we now have it; and the change of 
Irase had been designed and carried out by him alone. 
For this time was the blackest in the history of Loui-s 
XIV 's reign. Blenheim had been followed by Mal- 
placjuet and Eamillies and Oudenarde, and raiders 
had carried off a royal forester near Versailles. It 
seemed but a fjuestion of time Avhen the allies would 
be at Paris itself. It is true that some slight suc- 
cesses followed and a change of ministers in England 
drove Marlborough from power; and thus the Peacf 
of Utrecht, signed a few months be:Pore Bienville's 
letter, had given France peace with honor. And yet 
it humiliated him that Newfoundland, Acadia and 
Hudson's Bay, which he had helped to conquer, were 
ceded to the hated English. 

One result was already clear. The king in 1712 
had given over Louisiana to private enterprise, and 
Crozat and his associates were exploiting it for their 
own purposes. Cadillac had just succeeded Bienville 
and turned out the Canadians; he had even taken for 
his numerous family Chateaugue's attractive house 
just above the fort,— over there at the northwest 
corner of Conti and Boyal, — the only handsome two- 
story dwelling in the toAvn. Exploration had been 
pushed forAvard. but still it Avas commerce and not 

6 



agriculture from which returns were expected. 
CadiUac had been governor of Detroit before coming 
to IMobile — the two cities were of almost the same 
age — and brought with him the idea that Indian 
trade should be the foundation of colonial growth. 
Nevertheless the real centre of Indian diplomacy 
was rather in this house south of the fort tlian in 
Fort Louis. Bienville's influence was still needed, 
and he it w^as, who, the year after this letter, built 
Fort Toulouse (near our Wetumpka) to ally the 
Alibamons against the Carolina traders. It w^as he 
again w^ho took the steps leading to building Fort 
Rosalie at Natchez, which Iiept open the river route 
to Canada. He thus secured the keys of the North- 
cast and North w^est. 

Taking up his pen again and discussing personal 
matters, Bienville says — happy man, — that he owed 
no debts, and seems then to have at least 7,000 
livres in the Baron's hands in Canada, against which 
he gave orders, — inaugurating the banking business 
of the Gulf coast. He had earlier loaned Serigny 1,- 
000 pieces, and his spendthrift nephew, St. Helene, 
cost him dear. All his property w^as earned by him- 
self, for the paternal lands had been lost during his 
minority, and only Horn Island is reckoned to hiui 
in Louisiana. 

In the letter Bienville confided a secret to his 
brother. He discussed the snarling Cadillac, but 
adds that this governor had a grown daughter of 
great attractions and that he had been for a year de- 
sirous of marrying her, if the Baron and his wife 
did not object, but he could do so only if the father 
was" recalled. This he thought not unlikely, for he 
says he is himself in official favor again. "The 



niinistor Poutt'liartrahi," he says, "continually gives 
me the holy water of the eourt." 

He naively admits that he had not yet mentioned 
marriage to the lady. The views of Madamoiselle 
.Marie Madeleine (k' Ja .Motte on this interesting sub- 
ject have not been preserved. The story is somewhat 
like the Lady and the Tiger. At all events, Bienville 
never married, and we are left to conjecture whether 
he i)roposed or whether her answer was in the nega- 
tive. 

And at this climax we may turn from the letter, 
sent by voyageurs 2,000 miles to JMontreal, and while 
he, the cure, commissaire and officers go to a lively 
dinner, w^e may cast a glance forward. 

III.— THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 

Jjouis XIV died soon after this time, and the 
regency of the Duke of Orleans followed. Cadillac 
was indeed recalled by the dissatisfied Crozat, and 
then even Crozat 's rights were resigned. John Law^ 
obtained the ear of the prince, and, starting with his 
l)ank, soon absorbed all colonial functions in his 
Company of the West. This ^lississippi Bubble 
promised much from the soil and mines of the great 
Valley, and Bienville was appointed governor to 
carry out the new plans. 

The boomiiig by Law benefited all Louisiana, bid 
iilthoogh the old fort, renamed Conde. was rebuilt of 
i)rick, the change lessened the relative importance of 
]\robile. Attention was henceforth directed to agri- 
culture rather than commerce, and it so happened 
that a storm in 1717 blocked up with sand the har- 
bor at the east end of Dauphine Island. Avhieh had 
heretofore played so important a part. Thus not 
only was interest centered in the more fertile lands 



oil the Mississippi, but a. now i)ort had to bo sought. 
The result Avas first a port at New l^>i]oxi and then 
the foundation of a town on the JMississippi, named 
for the Duke of Orleans. From this time Ave find 
Bienville devoting himself to granting and peopling 
land concessions on that river and its tributaries. 
Important as this Avas. Ave love rather to dAvell on 
the earlier epoch, Avhen the country Avas iioav and 
unexplored. Avhen romance and adventure rather 
than returns attracted the French, — the time of 
Tonty, Iberville, Serigny, Chateaugue, Davison, St. 
Denis, and their like. 

By 1722 John LaAV had failed. Tavo years later 
J] is executive in Louisiana promulgated the famous 
Black Code, regulating negroes and expelling Jews 
and heretics, but Avas himself recalled. The Canadian 
influence Avas again extinguished, and for several 
years Bienville remained in France. The regent 
Avas dead and Louis XV beginning the reign Avhicb 
promised so much. This Avas Bienville's first visi^ 
to France since he had left Brest with Iberville to 
re-discover the Mississippi, but it lasted several 
several years. Paris was attractive enough for a 
man of forty-four, but Bienville longed to return to 
America again. The government kept its eye on him 
and after the croAvn resumed Louisiana he Avas sent 
in 1733 to undo the mistakes of Perier Avitli the 
Natchez Indians. 

Tavo ChoctaAv Avars resulted. In the first, Avhen 
Bienville led an expedition from Mobile up the Tom- 
bigbee, he Avas defeated at Aekia in north Missis- 
sippi.. In the second, the Illinois contingent, num- 
being among others his uepheAV, Longueuil, from 
^lontreal, joined him and he succeeded in effecting 



peace. Nevertheless in 1743 lie desii-ed to retire, 
f'uul his Avish was granted, to the distress of the col- 
onists, lie came to Dauphiiie Island to meet th(? 
Bellona. Init the ship sank before his eyes, and it 
was from the ]\rississippi that he hade a last farewell 
to the colony Avhich he had founded. He felt that 
he had not sncceeded; bnt he was w^rong. Compare 
his Louisiana wdth what he had found; compare his 
Louisiana with what followed. No one else had the 
same influence over the Indians or over the colon- 
ists; none other so combined the explorer, soldier 
and statesnu\n. It is little short of wonderful that a 
sailor could be so changed into a landsman, a Cana- 
dian be so successful in a Southern climate. Ilis 
brother Iberville had fallen a victim at forty-five; 
Bienville was to live to be eighty-eight. 

IV.— IN THE PARIS OF LOUIS XV. 

His passage of the ocean was not without danger 
from English ships, for France Avas involved in the 
War of the Austrian Succession. Old glories seemed 
to revive with ]\Iarshal Saxe and the Battle of Fonte- 
noy, and the war ended with the Peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle. He lived to see her also pass through the 
Seven Years War, Avhen Frederick the Great's bat- 
tles in Europe obscured the greater events in Amer- 
ica and India. Bienville had a personal interest, for 
he loaned a son of his sister, Catherine Jaenne, 10,- 
000 livres to buy a commission in the cavalry; but 
he, himself nearing seventy, remained quietly in 
Paris. 

Paris has ahvays been interesting, and in the 
time of Louis XV it was the gayest capital in Eu- 
rope. It may be there were undercurrents Avhich 
Avould in time bring about great changes, but, if so, 

10 



no one knoAv it yet, and eonrt and popnlace went 
abont their nsual oeenpations. Lonis XIV had neg- 
lected Paris for Versailles, and the road between, 
passing by Sevres and St. Cloud, was the great re- 
sort on holidays. Nevehtheless the Louvre, Tuileries 
and the Palais Royal were often used by the court 
and were the centre of Parisian interest. The Pont 
Neuf, leading over to the island where Notre Dame 
stood, was the place where one learned the news 
and saw the promenaders. and there Bienville often 
mingled with the crowds. 

He had retired from public life when he was 
sixty, but he seems to have been provident of the 
future. He had gradually had his property invested 
in France, for he seems never to have returned to 
Canada after leaving it for the settlement of Louisi- 
ana. There was always opportunity for making 
money in Paris; but the stock-jobbers were uoav dis- 
credited, and the financiers, the successors of Ber- 
nard and the brothers Paris, whom Bienville knew, 
were in the ascendant. The wars in Lidia had 
brought many Oriental luxuries to France. Bien- 
ville seems to have had a penchant for precious 
stones and invested in diamonds, which he wore 
upon his person. 

Lideed. he could be said to live in consideral)le 
style. He had a valet de chambre called Veuraine. 
otherwise known as Pi card, of whom he seemed 
quite fond. He did not have to walk through the 
muddy streets of Paris, with the water draining to 
the centre, as it then did. but had his coach and pair. 
— the coachman bearing the aristicratic name of 
Baron. A cook there was, of course. — her name 
Renaud, — who kept au fait with the new dishes con- 
tinually invented at Versailles'. 

1.1 



Bienville's house was on the eart side of the 
Seine, near Montiiiartre. and. like other Parisian 
homes of that day, narroAV and of two stories, over- 
looking a little garden in the rear, visible even from 
the street through the porte eoehere. There he enter- 
tained his friends, and he was visited sometimes also 
])y his relatives. His favorite kinsman, perhaps, was 
the second son of Serigny. The elder son had been 
('ai)tain in the navy, and then, like his father, em- 
ployed at the Rochefort navy yard. But he died 
in 1753, and Bienville's affections centred on the 
younger, Avho became a captain in the army, dis- 
tinguished for his bravery and his wounds. His oc 
casional visits did the old governor's heart good. Ol' 
course this quarter century in France was not all 
spent at the capital. The country nobility lived in 
style, despite the drift to Paris. It may well be that 
Bienville went as a pilgrim to the home of his an- 
cestors in Normandy, w^here his kinspeople were, 
and perhaps he visited occasionally the port of 
Rochefort, to be in touch again with colonial af- 
fairs. Nevertheless he did not seek public employ. 

Of his mental basis we have little trace. He was 
contemporary with Voltaire, Rousseau and the En- 
cyclopedists, besides having access to the literature 
of Louis XIV's reign, and he could hardly live in 
the Paris of that day and be untouched by these in- 
fluences. His early literary, style was not good, al- 
though always forcible, but in Paris it improved 
greatly. "Whether he frequented any of the famous 
salons of the time we do not know, although his 
Cross of St. Louis would afford him entree anywhere. 
Possibly he Avas not at ease in the presence of those 
cultivated ladies and carpet knights; possibly the 

12 



face of Marie Madeleine— perhaps the remembrance 
of a Mobilienne beauty— kept the old governor out 
of such tamptations. Perhaps the stately minuet 
Avas tame to one who knew the cotillon a la Missis- 
sippienne. To the church, however, he was ahvays 
attached. Of the religious orders he favored the 
Jesuits, with Avhom he, as well as his father, had 
been brought up, but they were expelled from 
France in 1762. However, the cure of the parish 
was a frequent visitor at his house. 

Bienville saw with mortification the partition of 
Louisiana at the Peace of Paris in 1763, by which 
Mobile and the eastern half was ceded to Great 
Britain, and he aided Milhet, the delegate from New 
Orleans', in resisting the gift of the west half of the 
colony to Spain; but we are told they saw only 
Choiseul, the prime minister. Bienville had not the 
influence or address to approach the true ruler of 
France, and probably no man of eighty could please 
La Pompadour. 

v.— A FRENCH WILL. 

One cold day in January, 1765, an old man sat in 
liis little back parlor at Paris studying a large law 
book. He had had this leather back Coutume de 
Paris with him while he was in Louisiana. He knew 
it from title page of 1664 to index and final vignette, 
for Louis XIV had made it law for the colony. He 
was now studying the division headed ''Titre XIV. 
des Testamens." He was familiar enough with its 
contents, for, while colonial governor, he had often 
supervised the execution of Avills and also the admin- 
istration of estates; but it was a different thing to 
write his own will. He had written it before, how- 

13 



over, and now in this' olographic testament sets them 
Jill aside. /i 

He sloAvly writes: "Persuaded as I am of the 
necessity of deadth and the uncertainty of its hour, 
I desire before it comes to put my affairs in order." 
His early training, sometimes perhaps forgotten dur- 
ing his varied life, returns to him as he commits his 
soul to God and declares that he wishes to live and 
die in the bosom of the church, imploring the pity 
of God and of the Saviour and asking the protection 
of the Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, of Saint John 
the Baptist, his patron saint, and of all the other 
saints in Paradise. Having made all his money him- 
self,j the Coutume allowed him to dispose of it as he 
saw fit. Therefore he bequeaths to the j^oor of his 
parisli 1,000 livres, ordains that three hundred 
masses shall be said for the repose of his soul, and 
then passes to his friends. He gives to his valet a 
pension of 200 livres a year for life, besides outright 
150 livres in the Hotel de Ville securities, and his 
wardrobe, including all clothing, and the lit garnit 
where he sleeps. To the cook he gives 300 livres, to 
the lackey 200 francs, to the coachman 100 livres, 
and to Marguerite, the cook's daughter, 50 francs. 

His brothers and sisters are all dead, but he re- 
members their children handsomely. To his grand- 
nephew, Payan de Noyan, he remits the loan of 10,- 
000 livres, and to the boy's father, the oldest son of 
Bienville's sister, he gives a diamond w^orth 1500 
livres. To the son of his brother, the Baron de 
Longueuil, he leaves a diamond, and two others to 
his two grand nieces, the granddaughters of his 
brother, Iberville. 

14 



He constitutes four residuary (universels) lega- 
tees', — a son each of his brothers Longueuil, Serigny 
and Chateaugue, with other descendants of Serigny 
as the fourth. His executor was to be a nephew, Le 
Moyne de Serigny, already made a legatee, wiiose 
duties were only to distribute the estate; for there 
were no debts. 

After thinking over the document, Bienville 
added a codicil leaving to his nephew, Payan de 
Noyan, a diamond of equal value with the others. 

He could have made a will in the presence of wit- 
lu^sses, or he could have had it drawn by a notary; 
])ut the old governor preferred to write his own in 
the form which the Coutume speaks of as "secret," 
although as solemn and binding as any. 

Anyhow it was done and he put it away carefully 
ill his escritoire, stirred up the fire and rang the l)ell 
for Picard. A decanter and a glass of l>urgundy 
finished the transaction. 

The will and codicil remained locked up in the 
desk, looked at once or twice without change, and on 
the 26th of April, 1767, Bienville went in his coach 
to the proper office to have it registered. This was 
not always done, but it was safer, even if it did cost 
65 livres for the Avill and 18 sous for the codicil. 
There was only one part of the transaction Avhich 
was unpleasant to him, — the name of the Controleur 
was Langlois, — and, if there Avas anything which 
Bienville hated, it was the word ''English." 

r 

VI.— MONTMARTRE. 
With mind at ease, but with the increasing in- 
firmities of age, Bienville lived in his little home for 
several years. Friends and relatives were willing 

15 



JUL 10 1911 



to stay with him, but the old man preferred to live 
alone with his servants. 
J However, the hardiest constitution must yield at 
last, and the final summons came on March 7, 1768. 
The parish priest administered the last rites of the 
Catholic church. There was no wife, no sister, or 
child by his bed. It was left to the valet and the 
|)riest to soften his pillow and close his eyes. 

■ The next day came the simple funeral, attended, 
however, l)y Captain Serigny, several kinsmen and 
people of note in colonial history. It wended its 
way through the narrow streets up the heights of 
Montmartre, and there, overlooking the Seine, as 
his home in Louisiana had overlooked the Mobile, 
was laid to rest one of the greatest of Frenchmen. 
The simple head-stone was not to outlive the 
Prussians and the Commune, and his only epitaph 
is the church record of his death and burial. If one 
seeks his monument, it is the great country which he 
colonized. 



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